Bernanke got what he wanted.  Stocks to go up.  This is the gameplan now.  Kill the dollar to increase the price of risk assets such as stocks.  It’s the wealth effect from stocks.  Stocks are up big today and so is gold.  The question is will stocks be able to outpace gold?  If gold rises faster than stocks, then stocks are not gaining value.  Quite the situation we have in the markets and in the world of monetary policy.  Got inflation-hedges?

Unemployment has been extremely high now for months, even years.  Getting a job that pays you what you think you deserve and that involves some sort of work that you prefer is extremely tough these days.  I can’t count the number of stories I’ve heard of extremely sharp people who have taken massive, massive pay cuts – even pay cuts of like 80% – simply to find work after getting laid off from previous high paying jobs.
And these are the people who have chosen to just go work doing something, …

With the election festivities over, maybe the politicians both old and new can now get to work.  Fat chance right?  Well, we can hope.  The problem is that all the rhetoric is regarding surface level issues in my opinion.  Not meaningless, but not core issues.  Included in these, I will put health care (debatable), Bush tax cuts, etc.  This is all people want to talk about.
Like I said, these aren’t meaningless, but until the following core issues are addressed, I have a hard time getting excited about any candidate.
Core Issues …

A great clip of Rand Paul on CNBC recently explaining interest rates (among a number of things). If you’ve ever wondered what would we do without the Fed with regards to setting rates, Paul explains it in simple language in this video.

In the news the other day was the fact that the state of Indiana is placing armed guards at various unemployment centers as the expiration of the 99-week unemployment benefits is set to kick into effect.  You can read about it here.
This is a pretty amazing event and is a very insightful image into what America has become.  Let’s dissect this further.
First, obviously, Indiana fears that possibly there might be some upset or angry people as a result of having their unemployment benefits cut off even if it’s after almost …

Prices of some items are dropping and others are increasing.  It’s sort of a strange phenomenon.  We’re here to help you straighten out what is going on.
Flat screen TVs, the staple of most American homes these days, are continually falling in price.  A quick trip to Wal-Mart or Target or Best Buy will show you that you can go bigger and better with regards to your TV than ever before.
Meanwhile, if you go to the grocery store, you’ll notice that some of your staple items like orange juice are now …